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Vanderbilt Legacy Fades in Suffolk

Of all the Gold Coast mansions on Long Island, the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum stands apart, not for its grandeur but for its curious collection.

Among the rarities on display: two Peruvian shrunken heads, an Egyptian mummy and more than 700 jars filled with preserved shrimp, crabs, lobsters and other invertebrates, all turned white with age.

Willie K. Vanderbilt II,
great-grandson of the railroad magnate, collected the treasures on his round-the-world sea voyages. Before his death in 1944, he willed the property and an endowment to Suffolk County, which expanded the museum by building a planetarium on its grounds in the 1970s. But now, like counties across the country, Suffolk is struggling.

After its endowment was crippled by Wall Street losses, the Vanderbilt Museum came near to closing in 2009. The county Legislature passed a one-year parks fee increase to bail it out.

Three years later, the museum remains in a precarious position.

Though it has raised money by selling a 1937 Imperial Town Car and renting out one building as a residence, it is likely to be in the red again this year. A six-month delay in the county's construction project to install a new projector in the planetarium will result in at least $300,000 in lost revenue this year, said the museum's interim director, Lance Reinheimer.

County Museum in the Red

Lance Reinheimer, interim director of the Vanderbilt Museum, with a vintage vehicle the museum recently sold. Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal

A county hotel/motel tax now subsidizes the museum's $1.7-million operating budget by $800,000 to $1 million a year. That subsidy is set to expire at the end of 2015.

And while the planetarium is undergoing a major renovation, other museum buildings, including a boathouse and a structurally deficient seaplane hangar, need millions of dollars in repairs.

Standing on the mansion's cobblestone driveway on a recent afternoon, Mr. Reinheimer looked up at the museum's Spanish Moorish revival clock tower, decked in red tiles and now, for safety reasons, wrapped in mesh. Its intricately designed stucco facade is crumbling.

"It's like a sponge," Mr. Reinheimer said. "It cracks, water gets behind it, it freezes and basically pulls it off."

The problems are spread throughout the estate. In many spots, water has leached through the stucco exteriors and red tile roofs and damaged the plaster ceilings and interior walls.

Old electrical wiring urgently needs replacing. And the scion's seaplane hangar has deteriorated to the point that it soon could collapse.

The county, responsible for repairs and renovations, can't keep up.

Lawmakers have estimated the county's deficit this year at $100 million. More than 600 county jobs are funded only through June.

The county is installing a $3 million star projector in the planetarium, expected to boost attendance and revenue. The project is scheduled to start next week and should be complete by the fall, Public Works Commissioner
Gilbert Anderson
said.

Mr. Anderson said the project was delayed because the cost estimates came in above the original budget, and the museum went back to the legislature to seek $250,000 in additional funding so the theater can be used for other revenue-generating events, such as concerts.

The museum sees about 100,000 visitors a year, many of them in school groups that come for planetarium shows then walk through the mansion and exhibit halls. One room is filled, floor-to-ceiling, with alcohol-filled jars of invertebrates. Another room is a hodgepodge of stuffed birds, pinned butterflies, indigenous tools from the South Pacific, and the pair of shrunken heads, just a few inches high, with eyelids and lips sewn shut. They may or may not be human remains.

The Legislature has allocated $3.2 million for facade repairs and $185,000 for urgently needed electrical work, but it cannot be spent without the county executive's authorization. Some of that money may be diverted to instead replace the entire roof of the planetarium, ensuring that the new star projector will be protected, Mr. Anderson said.

County Executive
Steve Bellone
said it is too soon to say how much capital spending he will authorize on the museum this year. A report on the county's finances is expected to come out on March 6. After that, he said, every capital project will be reviewed and priority will be given to public safety and revenue-generating projects.

"The report is no doubt going to be ugly," he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Reinheimer, who before his appointment as interim director was the county legislature's chief watchdog on museum operations, has been squeezing cash out of everything in sight. The naming rights for a new planetarium seat go for $400. The Vanderbilt's 1937 Chrysler sold in February for $275,000. And the former superintendent's cottage, after a renovation done by the 2011 Restoration Design Show House, has been leased for $140,000 for two years to a couple who will use it as a part-time home.

A question mark hangs over the derelict seaplane hangar. Its front wall is separating from the rest of the building. Past proposals to turn it into a waterfront restaurant set the price at tens of millions of dollars. Visitors would have to be transported down a steep driveway and sewage would have to be pumped uphill.

The museum's board chairman,
Ron Beattie,
acknowledges the county won't foot that bill. He's hoping to find a private investor.

Whatever happens with the hangar, there will be a cost, Mr. Reinheimer said. "If it falls, it's going to cost money to pick it up and haul it away."

Corrections & Amplifications A 1937 Chrysler sold by the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum was incorrectly described in an earlier version of this story. It did not belong to Willie K. Vanderbilt II. It was donated to the museum after his death.